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South West to embrace sharia soon
by Suleiman Toba
AllAfrica.com (30.12.2002)/ HRWF Int. (03.01.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Dr. Lateef Adegbite, has disclosed that Sharia would soon be introduced for Muslims in the South-west of the country.
Adegbite spoke at the weekend during the formal opening course of the Muslim Students Society (MSS) at Ogunmakin in Odeda local government area of Ogun State.
According to him, "the Southern States Council for Islamic Affairs (SSCIA) will in the new year constitute a high-powered committee that would consider the modalities for the actualisation of the project and provide a workable programme for its implementation."
The introduction of the civil Sharia which according to Adegbite would be democratically pursued will be in the states that have appreciable Muslim population.
While expressing the need to carry everybody along in the project, Adegbite solicited the support and active involvement of the MSS leadership and followership in enlightening the Muslim Umma and non-Muslims alike on the project.
The NSCIA scribe who assured that non-Muslims have nothing to fear, maintained that Sharia would not be extended to them.
"Non-Muslims can choose common law court or customary court in matters being adjudicated among themselves, while Muslims would choose Sharia court in disputes among Muslims," he explained.
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Top Nigerian Muslim body overrules Miss World fatwa
Reuters (28.11.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (29.11.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Nigeria's supreme Islamic body said Thursday Muslims should ignore a fatwa issued by a northern state calling for the death of a journalist whose article on the Miss World pageant sparked bloody riots.
The statement by the Jama'atu Nasril Islam was circulated as President Olusegun Obasanjo faced angry church leaders in the riot-torn city of Kaduna who said most of the more than 200 dead in the unrest were Christian.
Conservative Zamfara state issued the fatwa against Isioma Daniel, a female journalist in her early 20s, whose article on the Miss World pageant enraged Muslims. The Kaduna office of her newspaper ThisDay was razed by irate Muslim youths at the start of the riots on November 20.
"The Zamfara state government has no authority to issue fatwa and the fatwa issued by it should be ignored," the statement said.
The story in ThisDay angered Muslims by suggesting the Prophet Mohammed would have approved of Miss World and possibly married one of the contestants. The journalist has since fled Nigeria.
The rioting triggered by the report led to the beauty pageant being hurriedly moved to the United Kingdom.
More than 3,000 people died in Kaduna in two bouts of Muslim-Christian clashes in February and May 2000 over plans to introduce Muslim sharia law there, in Nigeria's worst sectarian upheaval.
The latest violence in the oil-rich African state has cast a shadow over plans for the first presidential and national elections since the end of military rule in 1999, which are due in the early part of next year.
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Rights, religious groups condemn Nigerian fatwa
by Janet Lawrence
Reuters (26.11.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (27.11.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Rights groups and religious leaders condemned on Tuesday a Nigerian Muslim state which called for the death of a journalist whose article on the Miss World pageant sparked deadly riots in northern Nigeria.
Muslims were enraged by the article which suggested the Prophet Mohammad would probably have married one of the beauty pageant's contestants. More than 200 people were killed in riots which followed in the city of Kaduna.
Umar Dangaladima Magaji, the commissioner for information in the northern Zamfara state, said the state government had "passed a fatwa", or religious edict, on journalist Isioma Daniel, calling for her to be killed.
Editors at ThisDay newspaper, which published the article, said Daniel had fled to the United States after tendering her resignation in the wake of the crisis which saw the Miss World pageant hastily relocated from Nigeria to London.
Ann Cooper, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said: "We are extremely concerned about her safety. In this whole controversy, I think something that has been completely lost is the universal right to free expression."
She said article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteed everyone the freedom to express themselves without fear of reprisal.
But Magaji said the fatwa was issued in response to requests by many Islamic associations in Zamfara for the state government to take action.
"What we are saying is that the Holy Koran has clearly stated that whoever insults the Prophet of Islam, Mohammad, should be killed," Magaji told Reuters.
NUMEROUS APOLOGIES
But religious experts around the world questioned the validity of the fatwa, saying it should not apply as the newspaper had apologised over the article.
ThisDay has issued numerous apologies, which it said had been accepted by the main Muslim body in Nigeria, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.
"ThisDay newspaper has apologised on her (the reporter's) behalf, so the fatwa has to be withdrawn," Kaduna-based Islamic scholar Ali Alkali told Reuters.
Sheikh Saad al-Saleh, a Ministry of Islamic Affairs official in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, said: "They have no right to kill if the person expresses regret and apologises as it is considered repentance.
"But if the person stands by his statements then the matter should be referred to a sharia court to decide on a punishment, including death," he added.
Daniel is in her early 20s and had recently returned from a journalism course at Britain's University of Lancaster.
"I do not think it is blasphemy, the journalist has made a mistake and has said irrelevant things," said a reformist cleric in Iran, who declined to be named. "We cannot decide for the Prophet Mohammad."
Iranian officials were outraged last month by comments from U.S. preacher Jerry Falwell, who described the Prophet Mohammad as a "terrorist". Some hardline clerics called for a fatwa against Falwell, but the issue died down after he apologised.
SOME IN FAVOUR
Other clerics said Daniel deserved the fatwa against her.
"People are reacting to the sentencing to death of one person, forgetting that 200 people, both Muslims and Christians, have died (in the rioting)," said Sheikh Muhammad Dor Muhammad, Secretary-General of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya.
"A fatwa like that is legal. We don't have any complaint to the state that made it. I hope this will bring to an end people, Muslim or otherwise, insulting our Prophet."
Mohammed Nasiru Usman, an imam in Kaduna, also supported the fatwa. "Fatwa can be declared on a non-Muslim who insults the Prophet. That is exactly what this reporter did," he said.
Speaking in Britain, Miss World organiser Julia Morley pleaded for forgiveness for Daniel, saying she "has already apologised and admitted it was a very irresponsible thing to do."
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Religious violence rocks Nigeria
by Michael Peel
Christian Science Monitor (25.11.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (26.11.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - The arrival of dozens of beauty queens in London Sunday closed the troubled Nigerian chapter on this year's Miss World contest.
For the contestants, the change in venue means a return to simply vying for the title of the globe's most beautiful woman. But they leave in their wake a Nigeria gripped by increasing social and political tensions that find expression between religious and ethnic groups.
Violence that started last week in response to the contest, and continued into the weekend, left as many as 200 people dead. Earlier riots have also taken place unhindered by civil authority, and the government seems to hold little sway in large parts of the north, where Islamic law has governed for the past two years.
For a country that has tried to portray itself as emerging successfully from 16 years of military rule, the recent violence is the latest indication that it has miles to go in achieving that goal.
The challenge for the government and the international community, analysts say, is to resolve some of the seemingly intractable problems that make Africa's most populous country appear to the world as if it is falling apart.
"The image of Nigeria is poor and this will make it worse," says one state government official in Lagos, the country's commercial capital. "We must address the question of our [internal] relationships."
The Nigerian newspaper that lit the fuse last week has tried to take some first steps. ThisDay cleared one-third of its front page and all of page two Sunday to run an apology to the nation's Muslims over an article that suggested the prophet Muhammad might have married one of the contestants in the Miss World beauty pageant. The mea culpa said the newspaper's ethos was "not to be offensive to any religion" nor "to denigrate the cultural and religious values" of the country's people. "We can only plead that we meant no harm," ThisDay said. "The error was totally unintended."
The length and scope of the apology - the fifth made by ThisDay on its front page in the last week - highlights the continued fragility of the country's political system and social life three years after the return of civilian rule. But ThisDay's response had little effect on the rioting.
Local residents say the trouble began in the northern city of Kaduna on Wednesday, when a mob burned down ThisDay's office in the city, and attacks on churches triggered reprisals from the area's large Christian population.
"It was terrible," says Shehu Sani, president of Civil Rights Congress, a Kaduna-based nongovernmental organization. "There was burning and looting everywhere."
The demonstrations came in apparent response to a Nov. 16 ThisDay article about the Miss World contest, which began earlier this month and was to conclude on Dec. 7 in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. The article, written by Isioma Daniel, a style reporter who has since resigned, questioned the sincerity of Muslim groups who had attacked the pageant as indecent.
"The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring 92 women to Nigeria and ask them to revel in vanity," the piece said. "What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from one of them."
The provocative nature of the statement, made by a newspaper based in the southwest of the country, played on longstanding tensions between Nigeria's north and south, analysts say. The two regions have had an uneasy political coexistence since the British created the modern state of Nigeria from its northern and southern halves in 1914. The south is more wealthy, more urbane, and more religiously cosmopolitan than the populous north, which nonetheless is politically powerful and has provided most of Nigeria's presidents since independence in 1960.
Observers say the north has become the center of a political power struggle since the 1999 elections that brought President Olusegun Obasanjo to office after a decade and a half of military rule. A dozen northern states have unilaterally introduced severe forms of sharia, or Islamic law, with punishments such as amputation for stealing and being stoned to death for having sex outside marriage.
The application of northern sharia, which led to the deaths of an estimated 2,000 people in rioting between Muslims and Christians in 2000, has attracted support from Islamic religious leaders and from ordinary people desperate for a release from everyday poverty and violent crime.
"I am really pleased about it," says Muhammad Sanusi Khalil, an imam in Kaduna. "What democracy means, to the best of our understanding, is that every individual should be given the chance to lead their life in the way they want."
Observers point to the actions of Muslim leaders during the latest violence as evidence of a desire to entrench the Islamicization of the north, and to turn a volatile situation to political advantage. On Thursday, the Supreme Council of the Ulema, an influential group of Islamic scholars, said that unless the authorities took action against ThisDay, it could "not restrain the Muslims here from taking whatever action they deem appropriate." One analyst, who asked not to be named, says the comments were inflammatory given previous examples of mobs "taking to the streets and killing people in northern Nigeria - and not being held accountable for it."
The government has made little public comment on the Kaduna riots beyond condemning the ThisDay remarks and appealing for calm. Mr. Obasanjo, a Christian southerner, is seen as reluctant to alienate the Muslim establishment that supported his election and whose backing he wants for polls due next year. His government has responded to international criticism of severe sharia punishments by saying no stoning sentences will be carried out, although it has yet to challenge the sharia decisions in the federal courts.
Meanwhile, the beauty queens that landed in London Sunday seemed to be relieved. "I am so excited, I feel so happy," said Daniella Luan, this year's Miss England. "I am so pleased to be back in Britain, and that's the general feeling among all of us."
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Adegbite Wants Compulsory Islamic, Christian Education in Schools
This Day (28.09.2002)/ HRWF (28.09.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Secretary-General of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Dr. Abdul-Lateef Adegbite has called on government to make the teaching of islam and christianity compulsory for all children up to the junior secondary school level.
This policy, he said would help in eradicating ignorance in the religious sphere and reduce friction that often lead to religious intolerance and crises in the country.
Dr. Adegbite was speaking in Jos at the 5th International Conference on Christian-Muslim Relations.
According to the Secretary-General of the NSCIA, the importance of legislating compulsory religious knowledge in Nigerian schools cannot be over-emphasised considering the current trends of religious intolerance and crises.
He noted that adherents of respective religions are knowledgeable about their faith but ridiculously deficient on the fundamentals of other faiths.
"This could create problems as people tend to be sceptical, suspicious, sensitive, fearful and over-reactive to the doctrines or practices of a faith other than their own because they know little or nothing about the latter."
But with the teaching up to secondary level, he argued that "such basic knowledge attained would certainly promote mutual understanding among the people of different faith so essential for the attainment of religious harmony."
While noting that promoters of a particular religion tend to capitalise on the ignorance of their followers by practising "aggressive evangelisation; Adegbite stated that religious groups should be aware of the fact that "it is their enlightened interest that their followers should know a little about the other religion."
In a welcome address, Most Rev. Dr. David L. Windibiziri of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCIN) noted that dialogue was very important in the prevention and management of conflict.
"We should not just take our dialogue encounters as a nice and enjoyable time together. We all accept we live in a multi-religious society and this means that we accept that there are differences."
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Bombing of church in Nigeria on anniversary of Twin Towers attack
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (17.09.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (20.09.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - The government of Plateau State, central Nigeria, has appealed for calm following a bomb explosion at a Christian church that has increased tensions in a region already shaken by inter-religious violence.
The explosion on September 11 at the Church of Christ in Nigeria in the Laranto suburb of the state capital Jos, shook buildings in the surrounding area, causing slight structural damage to the church and covering the entire premises with a thick, dark smoke. So far there are no reported deaths or injuries.
Thousands have died since September last year, when inter-religious unrest first erupted in Plateau State. Until then the state had been largely untouched by the violence that has affected other northern and central states following moves by state governments to impose full Shari'ah (Islamic) law as state law in defiance of the country's secular constitution. Today 12 of Nigeria's 36 states have either adopted full Shari'ah Law or are in the process of doing so.
The latest outbreak of violence in Plateau State began on May 2, when more than 60 people died and property was destroyed during ethno-religious violence in Jos. Over 40 young people were later charged with complicity in the riots. From June to July over 80 villages were destroyed and over 1,000 people were killed during a series of raids on towns and rural settlements in Plateau State. Local sources report that the bodies of victims were mutilated and dismembered by attackers who are said to have been local Hausa Fulani Muslim extremists. The Hausa Fulani are also reported to have been helped by militiamen from Niger and Chad, a fact given added credence by recent local press reports of a clash between armed foreigners and policemen sent to the troubled areas to protect survivors of the violence.
The majority of the victims of the violence in June are reported to have been from the Tarok tribe who are indigenous to Plateau State and predominantly Christian. The Hausa Fulani migrated to the area from the north and are overwhelmingly Muslim. Over 100,000 people were displaced during the attacks in June and July and are currently in several refugee camps in and around Jos where there is a shortage of both food and medicine.
The attacks are thought to be part of a coordinated campaign to alter the ethno-religious balance in this key middle belt state prior to upcoming local and national elections. At a peace summit convened to discuss the events that occurred in June and July, delegates identified the emergence of ethnic and religious militias as the source of violence in Plateau State and asked traditional and religious rulers to discourage young people from joining them. However, attacks have continued, with what one local source described as 'silent killings of Christians' occurring in areas designated 'No Go' by Muslims.
Following the bomb attack, the Secretary to the State Government, Ezekiel Gomos, issued a press statement underlining the government's determination to deal decisively with 'any person found to be engaged in such condemnable acts that will breach the peace'.
Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: "This upsurge in violence, particularly on the anniversary of the Twin Towers attack, sends a message of intimidation to Christians in Jos. We welcome the State Government's determination to deal decisively with the perpetrators of this violence and to uphold the right of Christians to worship without fear of attack."
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Christians attacked and killed by Islamic fanatics in Nigeria
Worthynews.com (20.07.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (25.07.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Christians in the Plateau State of central Nigeria have been killed and forced from their land by extremist Islamic militants.
Attacks have been mounted against Christians in the area surrounding Jos, leaving several dead and many more wounded and displaced.
Christians in a village outside Jos were roused from sleep by church bells at 5am on a morning at the end of June. When they began making their way to church thinking it was the bell for morning prayers, they were ambushed by Islamic militants from the Hausa and Fulani tribes. Four were killed and 20 injured.
During the last three weeks of June, several churches were burned, shops and homes looted and Christian property destroyed in Yelwa Shendam. Christians were chased out of the town and were forced to take refuge in Jos.
In a separate incident in Wase, Christians were attacked and killed and no church building was left standing. Farmland and crops were destroyed and all the Christians there were forced to flee to Langtan.
Sporadic attacks have also been reported in Berakin Ladi, Vom and Miango, leaving several dead in each attack.
At least a thousand Christians are refugees scattered between Mban, Pil and Langtan, and Christian leaders in the area have organised refugee camps and have recorded evidence of the atrocities.
Bishop Ben Kwashi of Jos said: "We are facing a new Muslim onslaught. Terror has been released on the majority Christian population of the Plateau. As in Sudan, the church in these areas continues to be lively and fervent in faith in spite of their hardships. Our faith in our suffering is producing much fruit. Even now the congregations that are barely a month old are still zealous for Christ. We are losing material possessions and hanging on to Jesus alone."
CSW calls on the Nigerian Government to intervene with sufficient security forces to end these attacks on innocent people.
CSW also calls on local Muslim leaders to be a voice of moderation when confronted by violent provocateurs from outside the region.
Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of CSW, said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have seen loved ones murdered by these rampaging mobs.
"The destruction and upheaval of whole communities is a devastating development in this part of Nigeria and moderate voices on all sides must be heeded. Regardless of whether this violence is politically or religiously motivated, we call on all concerned to work for constructive dialogue leading to a lasting peace."
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Death penalty sought in Nigeria
AP (25.04.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (26.04.2002) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Muslim prosecutors sought the death penalty for two men accused of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime for which an Islamic court judge gave the accused men three days to reconvert.
Lawali Yakubu and Ali Jafaru, villagers in their 30s, were accused in the Islamic, or Shariah, court in the northern town of Mada of recently abandoning the Islamic faith and joining the Great Commission Movement, an international Evangelical church with a strong following in Nigeria.
Auwal Jabaka, the court judge, said Wednesday that although the Muslim holy book, or Quran, calls for the execution of Muslims who accept another religion, it was unclear whether the state's two-year-old Shariah penal code also permitted such a punishment.
Jabaka adjourned the court for three days to allow the accused to "change their minds" and convert back to Islam.
In the meantime, he called on the Zamfara government to clarify its position on the matter.
"If the law empowers me to (execute the two for converting from Islam to Christianity), I will have no hesitation in doing that," the judge said.
Yakubu and Jafaru were not represented by lawyers but were instead accompanied by fellow church members.
The two argued they had never been Muslims, but were instead members of the Magazawa, a Hausa subgroup that has long practiced Christianity. The overwhelming majority of Hausas one of Nigeria's largest tribes are Muslim.
The case was believed to be the first of its kind since a dozen predominantly Muslim northern states began implementing Shariah law in early 2000, despite virulent opposition from mainly Christian and animist southerners.
In the past two years, thousands of Muslims and Christians have been killed in periodic bursts of inter-religious bloodletting.
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Church applauds acquittal of Nigerian woman sentenced to stoning
Court says Islamic Law wasnt followed correctly
Zenith (25.03.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (26.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net 䨨C Email info@hrwf.net - The archbishop of Lagos hailed the news that Safiya Husseini, the Nigerian woman sentenced to stoning for adultery, was acquitted today by a court in Sokoto state.
"I thank the Lord because Safiya is now free. It is a victory against the Shariah, the Islamic law," Archbishop Anthony Olubunmi Okogie said in statements to the Misna missionary agency.
"We expected such a sentence," he said. "I am glad, because this woman was accused unjustly." Mohammed Tambari-Uthman, chief judge of the Islamic Court of Appeal, along with three other judges, explained that the proceedings against the 35-year-old woman had violated legal procedures of the Shariah itself. "And the police report did not include all the necessary information on the offense," he added.
Earlier, Archbishop Okogie said he was prepared to take the condemned woman's place, if the death sentence were confirmed.
"All those who accused this woman will have to answer to their own conscience and implore God's forgiveness," the archbishop added. "But they will also have to ask Safiya for forgiveness." He reiterated his criticisms against the application of the Islamic law in his country: "I totally agree with the Nigerian government, which has described the Shariah as unconstitutional. We cannot live in a nation that applies two different laws, one for Muslims, and the other for the rest of the citizens."
The Nigerian episcopal conference has long appealed for respect for Article 10 of the federal Constitution on the laicism of the state. The government must protect the rights of all citizens and be impartial vis--vis religions.
Meanwhile, official sources in Bakori, in the neighboring state of Katsina, reported that on Friday an Islamic tribunal sentenced another woman, Amina Lawal, 35, to stoning for adultery, after proving that she had a child although she is divorced.
The archbishop of Lagos hailed the news that Safiya Husseini, the Nigerian woman sentenced to stoning for adultery, was acquitted today by a court in Sokoto state.
"I thank the Lord because Safiya is now free. It is a victory against the Shariah, the Islamic law," Archbishop Anthony Olubunmi Okogie said in statements to the Misna missionary agency. "We expected such a sentence," he said. "I am glad, because this woman was accused unjustly."
Mohammed Tambari-Uthman, chief judge of the Islamic Court of Appeal, along with three other judges, explained that the proceedings against the 35-year-old woman had violated legal procedures of the Shariah itself. "And the police report did not include all the necessary information on the offense," he added.
Earlier, Archbishop Okogie said he was prepared to take the condemned woman's place, if the death sentence were confirmed.
"All those who accused this woman will have to answer to their own conscience and implore God's forgiveness," the archbishop added. "But they will also have to ask Safiya for forgiveness."
He reiterated his criticisms against the application of the Islamic law in his country: "I totally agree with the Nigerian government, which has described the Shariah as unconstitutional. We cannot live in a nation that applies two different laws, one for Muslims, and the other for the rest of the citizens."
The Nigerian episcopal conference has long appealed for respect for Article 10 of the federal Constitution on the laicism of the state. The government must protect the rights of all citizens and be impartial vis--vis religions.
Meanwhile, official sources in Bakori, in the neighboring state of Katsina, reported that on Friday an Islamic tribunal sentenced another woman, Amina Lawal, 35, to stoning for adultery, after proving that she had a child although she is divorced.
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Sharia States Should Modify Criminal Laws
By Lillian Okenwa Abuja
This Day (21.02.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (22.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net - The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Mr. Kanu Agabi, SAN, has told all governors operating the Sharia legal system to modify all criminal laws of their states to exclude imposition of punishments that may infringe on the rights of Moslems to equality with other citizens under section 42(1)(a) of the constitution.
The minister in a release yesterday, further stated that equality before the law means that Moslems should not be discriminated against, and this implies that they must not be subjected to a punishment more severe than would be imposed on other Nigerians for the same offence.
The statement by Agabi seems to be a departure from the posture of the Federal Government in the past which bordered on aloofness. In response to calls for a categorical response of the government to Sharia first proclaimed by Zamfara State in 1999, for instance, President Olusegun Obasanjo had repeatedly said in the past that "the issue will whittle away."
Most of the states in the North have already adopted Sharia.
The Justice Minister's note of caution is coming barely five days to the expected judgement of the Sokoto State Sharia Appeal Court on the appeal by Safiya Husseini- Tungar Tudu, against death sentence by stoning for adultery. The case has attracted global spotlight as well as international solidarity for Safiya.
In the letter dated March 18 and addressed to the governors of the Sharia states, Agabi stressed that individuals and states must comply with the constitution, and that any court, which imposes discriminatory punishments, is deliberately flouting the constitution.
Section 42 (1) states that a citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person - (a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administration of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject.
While acknowledging the objective of achieving a more orderly and disciplined society as the motive of states in conferring criminal jurisdiction on Sharia courts, Agabi warned that such imposition of discriminating punishments, if continued unchecked, may end up in isolating the country as a whole or the affected states as the entire world has risen to register their concern.
He also brought to the notice of the governors that his office had been inundated with letters from all over the world protesting the discriminatory punishments now imposed by some Sharia courts for certain offences.
Furthermore, he urged the chief executives of the states in question not to allow their zeal for justice and transparency to undermine the fundamental law of the nation, which is the constitution.
It was only last Monday that the Sokoto State Sharia Appeal Court fixed next Monday (March 25) as judgement day for the Safiya case.
Safiya was sentenced to death by stoning on October 19, 2001 by the upper sharia court, Gwadabawa. She later gave birth to a baby girl, Adama, in February 2001.
Safiya filed an appeal against the sentence on January 14 in the Sokoto State Sharia Appeal Court.
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Religion and Justice in Nigeria
Popular discontent with a faltering justice system fueled the adoption of Islamic law in northern Nigeria, but the legal deck remains stacked against the region's poor and uneducated
By Stephan Faris
Mother Jones (19.03.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (21.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net - A little over a year ago, Safiya Huseini's crime wasn't even on the books. Now, the 35-year-old divorcee from a poor village in northern Nigeria faces death by stoning.
"Nobody is happy about this," says her blind father, Huseini Danwanzam, 75. "There is no justice."
Huseini's sentence -- she was convicted of adultery because she was found to be pregnant -- is the harshest and most controversial handed out in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north since states there began adopting a hard line Islamic code in January of 2000. The authorities have yet to stone anyone, but they have conducted several amputations.
The first execution carried out under Sharia law came last January, with the hanging of a convicted murderer.
Public support for Sharia law in the northern states has largely been the result of popular discontent with the country's faltering and corrupt justice system. Ruud Peters, a University of Amsterdam expert on Islamic law who has advised Huseini on her case, says that almost all of the countries that introduced the religious codes in modern times -- Libya, Pakistan, Iran and Sudan -- did so as the result of a systematic campaign by political leaders looking to cement their nation's Islamic identity.
Not so in Nigeria, where the adoption of Sharia law by 11 northern states was all but forced upon often-reluctant governors by a population tired of crime and corruption.
"People have this idea that when you introduce Islamic law, moral standards will be higher," Peters says. "And if you punish offenses severely, that will deter crime."
The country is made of two religious blocks, which were joined by the English in the early 20th century. While the coastal south is largely Christian or animist, Islam has been dominant in northern Nigeria for centuries. Sharia codes were enforced in northern Nigeria until 1960, when they were outlawed by the country's British government (London had banned amputation, stoning and crucifixion much earlier).
While religious courts continued to hold sway in family law, it was not until 1999, when Nigeria cast off decades of military dictatorships in favor of a civilian government, that states began reintroducing the Islamic penal code.
"Nigeria went through 20 years of military rule," says Sanusi L. Sanusi, a Nigerian banker and Islamic scholar. "People were looking for a reason for hope." Then, as now, lawlessness prevailed. Armed robbers stopped cars and busses or pillaged whole city blocks. Ordinary people saw the police only at roadblocks, inspecting papers, demanding money. In the south, the public turned to brutal ethnic vigilantes for security. In the north, they turned to Sharia.
The states' path toward Sharia has not been uniformly smooth. The move to adopt Sharia touched off widespread violence in the northern state of Kaduna, where more than 2,000 people were killed in several days of rioting and religious conflict. Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, decried the violence but has been unable or unwilling to take action to back up his criticism.
Recently, with Obasanjo appearing weakened by a new spasm of religious and ethnic violence, the president has finally taken aim at politicians who he says are deliberately inciting conflict for political gain, reportedly calling those involved in the fighting "foot soldiers of cynical political strategists.
"Still, Obasanjo appears entirely unwilling to openly call for the northern states to modify their various interpretations of Sharia.
Some northern politicians initially balked at adopting the Sharia code. Others, appreciating the public appeal that Islamic law carried, were quick to embrace the public crusade.
The first to do so was Ahmed Sani, the newly-elected governor of Zamfara State. Sani's introduction of Sharia vastly boosted his popularity, allowing him to claim a spot on the national stage as its most ardent proponent.
Sani's freshly-minted reputation as a champion of law and order is ironic. During Nigeria's 15-years of military dictatorship of, Sani held several posts at Nigeria's Central Bank. His tenure came at a time when the country's top brass were draining Nigeria of billions in oil revenue, deepening its poverty and shortchanging its infrastructure -- including the police force.
And Sani's hands were far from clean. In 1999, he described to a group of foreign journalists how he took kickbacks from military officers (he has since denied it). With the end of military rule in 1999, Sani used his ill-gotten gains to buy votes in the race for Zamfara's governorship. Now, Sani is using his new Islamic standing to further his political career.
Sani has sought to discredit his fellow northern governors -- all potential adversaries on the national stage -- by suggesting that several have only embraced the Sharia code to further their political careers. Within Zamfara State, Sani has even used Islam -- and the longstanding tensions between south and north -- to move against supporters of his political opponents.
One British newspaper even reported Sani threatened to wage a "jihad" against his political adversaries.
Not surprisingly, neither Sani nor any of Nigeria's other famously corrupt politicians have been charged with any crimes under Sharia. And even if they were, they wouldn't face amputation or stoning. While stealing a goat can cost you your hand, the Islamic criminal code punishes embezzlement by a public official with lashes, fines or imprisonment.
When it comes to daily enforcement, the decks of Nigeria's version of Sharia are further stacked against the nation's poor. Lashings for infractions such as drinking and disturbing the public peace are doled out daily. Huseini was convicted based on the simple evidence that she was pregnant (her partner, who she accuses of rape, was set free). Only women like her, with no access to sex education or abortions, need let a swollen belly bear witness against them.
Sanusi, who supported the introduction of Sharia law, is now urging restraint.
"Ultimately, as long as you don't address the problems of the people, people will lose faith in the system," he says. There are already signs that the public faith in Sharia is slipping. A goat-thief who had his hand amputated claims he deserved his punishment, but only after he was promised about $400 dollars following his operation, a large sum in a country where the average income is less than $1 a day. He continues to receive assistance. Another man sentenced to have his hand amputated has renounced Islam, hoping to escape punishment.
The strict social mores imposed by Sharia are also followed in a less-than-rigid manner in much of northern Nigeria. In Zamfara, women are forced to wear body-covering veils, single-sex schools have been introduced and drinking alcohol is prohibited. Yet bars in special military zones -- areas administered by the nation's powerful army leadership which are exempt from state or local laws -- are sufficiently reliant on Muslims to see a sharp slump in trade during the holy month of Ramadan.
Suggesting that the pattern is a familiar one seen in other countries that adopted Sharia law, Peters says he expects the prosecutorial zeal to subside in northern Nigeria. Libya and Pakistan, he says, never enforced the harsher Islamic penalties, while Sudan and Iran used them only shortly after their introduction. Moreover, Peters argues that Nigeria has a strong Western legal tradition which Sharia will not completely erode.
Still, that softening of attitude may not come in time to save Safiya Huseini. She has appealed her sentence, and has changed the basis of that appeal from saying she was raped to attributing her pregnancy to her husband, whom she divorced two years before becoming pregnant. That tactical shift came after prompting from Peters, who notes that under Nigeria's brand of Islamic law, a pregnancy can be concealed for up to 7 years.
"You have to play by their rules," he says. "It's difficult to undo a path of Islamization. The only thing you can do is cut off the sharp edges."
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Government advised on religious education
By Musbau Rasak
P. M. News (12.03.2002) / - HRWF International Secretariat (14.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - Government at all levels have been advised to make religious and moral education compulsory subjects in primary and secondary schools in the country to put a stop to the frequent violent crimes and cultism among youths.
The chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of Al-Furqan International Schools, Mr. Kamaldeen Kunle Akinola, gave this advice recently at the annual prize giving ceremony of the school which took place at Baleke Smith Mosque, Surulere.
Mr. Akinola noted that lack of religious and moral education in children has made them grow up to become armed robbers and cultists. "Children who are properly brought up in good Islamic and Christian backgrounds will always grow up to become good ambassadors of their parents and the community at large," he said.
The Managing Director of Demark Prints based in Mushin blamed parents and governments for the lack of moral standard in children. According to him, parents no longer care whether their children pray in the morning before going out. "All the parents are after is how to make money. They don't care if their children go to mosque and church or not," he said.
He stated further that the government had not helped matters through its negligence of religious and moral education. "Government is not interested in God, hence, its negligence of the religious aspect of education," he noted.
Mr. Akinola called on the government at all levels to go back to the basics.
"Let's go back to God. We have detached ourselves from God all along and this is the cause of our problems," he said. He urged government to make religious and moral education compulsory at both primary and secondary levels, while also calling on government to assist private education institutions.
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Blood in the Shrine
Tempo (07.03.2002) / HRWF International Secretariat (07.03.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Christians and animists are engaged in a bloody fight over religious practices reports Mike Ubani TEMPO learnt that the deity is represented by a masquerade known as Odo. The masquerade, which appears in public twice in two years, has several shrines including the Ugwu Ota Egbudu, Amanyi, Okurempkume, and Ezugwu, the most dreaded of them.
It was further learnt that almost everybody born in Neke is initiated into the Odo Masquerade Cult.
It had been the tradition of Neke people that each time the Odo Masquerade made a public outing, non members of the cult stay indoors as long as the masquerade is in the public glare - usually four days. On such days, other social and religious activities are outlawed in the community.
The horrible aspect of this outing is that human beings - several of them - are usually sacrificed at several shrine of Odo before the masquerade, according to the natives, agree to take its exits.
The victims of this barbaric act are not only people from Neke but also strangers who come either on a visit or to trade in the community. In fact, it was gathered that during the colonial days, the adherent of Odo beheaded scores of white men and women who ventured into the community. The heads of male victims were reportedly deposited at Ezuguwu shrine while that of the female victims were taken to Ani shrine.
The beheading of a whiteman qualifies adherent of the cult to partake in a strange dance before any of the shrines. This probably explain the reason why in the olden days, there was a keen competition among adherents of Odo cult to behead a whiteman.
That notwithstanding, the killing of their kit and kin, and continuation of this dastardly act in modern day Nigeria seem to have incensed the sensibilities of the Christians in the area and some of the indigenes who have long acquired Western education and sophistication.
Many people were reportedly declared missing in Neke in February 2001 when the Odo masquerade embarked on its routine outing.
It was believed that most of the missing persons were sacrificed to propitiate the masquerade.
But the Christians in the community including those of the Catholic and Anglican denominations had since cried foul. They await the psychological moment to pull down the 'wall of Jericho'. That opportunity came between 14 and 16 February, 2001.
As usual, the Odo cult members announced that there would be no religious and economic activities in the community during those periods when the Odo masquerade was expected to make an appearance, this announcement obviously incensed the Christians. According to Rev. Anselem Chibundu Omeje of St. Patric Catholic Parish, Neke, "This announcement agitated the minds of the Christians in the area, and aroused in them the spirit of revolt." The revolt by the Christians took the form of the destruction of Odo shrine and the unmasking of the Masquerade.
At the Ezukwu shrine, the Christian soldiers made a startling discovery. They found 32 human skull in one of the layers of the alter of the shrine. The alter has seven layers, and the possibility exists that more human skulls are locked inside all the layers of the alter.
This shocking discovery was reported to the police in Ikem, the headquarters of Isi Uzo Local Government Council. It was gathered that the police later removed the human skulls to the station, made some arrest, but for inexplicable reasons released the suspects, all of them members of the Odo Masquerade Cult.
In a dramatic turn of event, members of the Odo cult reported to the police that the Christians in Neke community attacked the Odo shrines, destroyed and stole in the process some fetish objects, idols, and more especially the Odo mask. The police swooped on the Christian community and made some arrest.
On Monday, 25 February, 2002, 21 members of the Christian community, including Rev. Omeje and his counterpart of the Anglican Church Neke were arraigned at the Ikem Magistrate Court presided over by Mr. Donatus Alumona, a senior magistrate. The Rev. Fathers and the other Christians face a five-count charge.
Those arrested and charged alongside Rev. Father Omeje are: Okwor; John Aguma; Chinwuba Okoro; Ebenezer Ugwu; Anselam Nnamani; Lebechi Ojiakor; Celestine Ugwuwba; Nnamchi Romanus; Agboo Valentine; Emelia Agbo; Chinwe Njeze; Odo Gabriel; Nkechi Eze; Rachael Ogere; Calista Ogene; Melitus Nnaji; Raphael Odo; Slyvanus Agbani and Nnamani Innocent.
When the case was mentioned, the lead counsel for the accused, Chief Melitus Eze, appealed to the presiding magistrate not to take any plea, since the 15th accused person, Nkechi Eze Agbo (Miss), was absent from the court on health grounds. He told the court that the accused was admitted into a nearby hospital and was subjected to injection. The presiding magistrate agreed. He adjourned the case till 11 March, 2002.
Outside the court premises, over 500 Christian men and women sang and danced Christian songs. They extolled the mighty powers of the Supreme Being and said that Neke has been dedicated to God. The spokesperson for the women, Mrs. Nnenna Nnamchi, told this magazine that the Odo cult members had deprived the women folk of their freedom of movement, worship and speech. She said that the women were ready to die rather than worship the Odo cult.
She alleged that Odo cult members bribed the police to arraign Christians before the magistrate court. There was no independent confirmation of this allegation however.
Rev. Father Eva Chuma Nnamene, director of social communications, Nsukka Diocese of the Catholic Church, said that the church, having fought a successful war against slave trade, was now poised to fight against ritual murder in Neke. "We want the Oputa Panel to know what is happening in Neke.
We want the international community to know that Neke people are living in bondage. We want to be liberated." He said the Christian community in Neke are ready to die in their quest for freedom of worship, speech and movement.
But the Odo adherents are angry that their Christian foes were former Odo cultists who got converted to Christianity. They say they want them back in the Odo fold.
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Nigerian state government implements
new anti-Christian measures
by Emman Usman Shehu
CNSNews.com, (29.01.2002) / World Religion News Service - wrns--news@home.com / HRWF (04.02.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - Life is about to get tougher for non-Muslims, especially Christians, in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara, as new measures are rolled out to enforce Islamic (shari'a) law, first adopted two years ago.
The wearing of turbans and veils by male and female students in post-primary institutions will now be compulsory, the state's education commissioner, Umar Ango Bakura, told reporters in the state capital, Gusau.
He stressed that there would be no exceptions. More than 34,000 turbans had already been purchased for distribution, while veils (hijabs) would soon be delivered.
Meanwhile, 14 church buildings have been slated for demolition by the state government.
Lands and housing commissioner, Hassan Nasihu, told state radio there were too many churches in Zamfara and there was need to drastically reduce the number, as well as prevent the opening of new ones.
Two Christian community leaders, Rev. Linus Awuhe and Rev. David Ishaya, have opposed the moves.
Awuhe, chairman of the Zamfara chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), urged the federal government to call the state government to order, to avert a possible breakdown of law and order.
While the Christian community fully supports decency in dressing, he said, it would not be fooled into following a pre-arranged agenda of Islamization.
Awuhe argued that throughout Nigeria, Muslims are at liberty to build mosques wherever they live, without harassment. But the reverse was the case for Christians in Zamfara.
Ishaya, who heads a body called the Christian Complaints Committee (CCC), said life in Zamfara was traumatic for Christians.
He said the drive to close down the churches was not restricted to the state capital. Government agents had sealed off an Anglican and an evangelical church elsewhere in the state.
Ishaya said Christian leaders had been making representations to Zamfara Gov. Ahmed Sani, urging him to allow Christians to live as free citizens and practice their faith as provided for in the country's constitution.
But it looks unlikely that the state governor will reverse the decisions. During the opening ceremony of a Quranic recitation competition, Sani declared he was ready to sacrifice his life and property to sustain the shari'a legal system in Zamfara.
And last February, he personally led a raid on a Roman Catholic Church, ordering that it be converted into a mosque and an Islamic school.
Zamfara was the first of Nigeria's 36 states to introduce shari'a law, in January 2000. One-third of the country's states have followed suit. Christians in these states claim the move aims to wipe out Christianity.
In these 12 northern states, Christian programs are not allowed on state radio and Christian religious studies are banned. Application for permission to build churches has become difficult.
Shari'a also provides for punishments such as amputation for theft, stoning for adultery and flogging for the drinking of alcohol.
In one state, Kaduna, more than 2,000 people were killed in Christian-Muslim riots linked to plans to introduce Islamic law there.
Three Christians from Zamfara have gone to court to challenge the legality of the Islamic code.
Their suit, initially struck out by a High Court in Gusau, is currently before a Court of Appeal that will decide whether the implementation of shari'a is a breach of Nigeria's 1999 constitution.
Many Christians fear that the last military ruler, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubaka, a Muslim, sneaked provision into the constitution to facilitate the implementation of shari'a.
About half of Nigeria's total population of around 123 million is Muslim.
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14 Churches slated for demolition in northern Nigeria
by Lekan Otufodunrin
Nigeria Online Christian News (22.01.2002)/ HRWF (24.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net- Fourteen Churches in Zamfara State, in Northern Nigeria are now facing demolition threat by the state government, which claims that there are too many Christian worship centers in the state. Zamfara state, which spearheaded the adoption of Islamic law in northern Nigeria contrary to the country's secular constitution, is predominantly Muslim, populated with less than a five percent Christian population.
The Chairman of the State Christian Complaint Commission, David Ishaya said last week in an interview in Kaduna, northern Nigeria political headquarters, that the State Commissioner of Lands and Housing, Alhaji Hassan Nasihu gave the directive for the demolition.
Among Churches slated for demolition in Gusau, the state capital, are the branches of Deeper Life Bible Church, Mountain of Fire and Miracle, Assemblies of God and Winners Chapel whose leaders have been invited for a meeting ahead of the demolition.
Apart from churches in the state capital, the Anglican Church in Kaura, Namoda, has been sealed up following disagreement over the ownership of the land of which the over 30 years Church was built.
Ishaya quoted the Commissioner for Lands, as saying that there was need to drastically reduce the number and curtail the growth of Churches in the state.
The Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) according to the Commissioner have enough land to themselves and the other denominations should merge with them.
"Life in Zamfara is traumatic for Christians" the Chairman of the Christian Complaint Commission stated arguing that contrary to the state government's propaganda, the Sharia legal system was meant to annihilate Christians in Zamfara state.
He said Christians in Zamfara must be allowed to live as free citizens and practice their faith as provided for in the country's constitution.
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Another Nigerian woman faces sentence of death
by stoning
Zenit (16.01.2002)/ HRWF (17.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net- Another woman faces the possibility of death by stoning after having a baby out of wedlock, an attorney says.
The lawyer explained that Aishatu Abubakar, 18, is in prison with her 1-month-old daughter in the northwestern city of Sokoto, capital of the state with the same name. Sokoto state is one of 13 that has adopted Islamic law.
Sokoto already has applied Koranic religious principles in the administration of justice. It staged an execution six months ago and, before that, carried out two hand amputations in public.
Abubakar was accused by her neighbors and now awaits the decision of the Islamic court. Her triall takes place Jan. 21. She has been denied release on bail.
"If it is established officially that she is married, she might be sentenced to stoning for adultery; if she is not, she will be given 100 lashes for fornication," said Abdulkadir Imam Ibrahim said. He said the accused has been divorced for a year.
Ibrahim is also the attorney for Safiya Husaini, 34, who also faces a death sentence by stoning for having had sex outside marriage.
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Nigeria stoning case adjourned
CNN (14.01.2002)/ HRWF (15.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - An Islamic court in Nigeria adjourned on Monday the appeal of a mother sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery in a case that has sparked international outrage.
Mother of five, Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu, sat quietly breastfeeding her daughter in the court in the northern city of Sokoto as judges set March 18 for the next hearing to decide her fate. Human rights and women's groups, spectators and about a dozen defence lawyers packed the courtroom.
The five appeal judges who had been due to rule on Hussaini's appeal said they needed time to consider new grounds of appeal filed by the defence.
"We needed more time because they brought another additional five grounds of appeal which we need to study," leading state counsel Mohammed Barau Kamawara told Reuters after the session.
Citing one of the new grounds for appeal, defence lawyer Abdulkadir Ibrahim said the law used against Hussaini was not in effect when the alleged offence was committed.
The defence said the court had also failed to investigate whether Hussaini was in fact married. Hussaini, 33, says she is divorced.
Hussaini was sentenced in October after she asked the court to force a man she said raped her and impregnated her to pay for her infant daughter's naming ceremony.
She has said that when her family pressured her to charge the man with rape, the court dismissed the charges against him, citing a lack of evidence because she was the only witness.
At Monday's hearing she was not required to say more than routine identification, which she did in her native Hausa. Throughout the session, she sat on a bench in a section of the court reserved for women under sharia's strict sex segregation.
Her baby daughter cried for much of the time.
On Sunday, a group of European parliamentarians sent a strong appeal to Nigeria in a last-ditch bid to save Hussaini from "inhuman, barbaric and cruel" execution.
The letter was addressed to President Olusegun Obasanjo by European parliament member John Corrie in the name of the 77 members of the European Parliament.
Corrie praised what he said was Obasanjo's intervention, which he said stopped the execution from being carried out on January 12.
Justice Minister and Attorney-General Bola Ige had said the federal government would not allow the sentence, passed under the jurisdiction of Sokoto state, to be carried out. But he was murdered last month.
According to the court's interpretation of the punishment, the woman would be buried with only her head and chest above ground, so she could not move, and then be stoned to death.
The introduction of sharia law in a third of Nigeria's 36 states, all in the largely Islamic north, since military rule ended in 1999 has set off deadly riots in the region between Muslims and Christians.
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Appeal planned for Nigerian woman facing death
by stoning
Christian president vows to support her move
Zenit (11.01.2002)/ HRWF (14.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - An Islamic court will re-examine the case of a woman convicted of adultery and condemned to death by stoning, judicial authorities announced.
Safiya Husaini, 35, was condemned to death in October by a Muslim court in Sokoto. She gave birth last February to a baby girl, although she was divorced. The court accused her of adultery.
Under Islamic law, pregnancy is the only evidence required in such a case. Safiya Husaini's lawyers will appeal, contending that their client was raped and is not responsible before the law. Moreover, they will argue that the charges involve actions that occurred before Islamic law came into force in the state.
If the appeal is rejected, Husaini's lawyers will be able to make a new appeal to a higher court in Kaduna, another northern city, and eventually to the supreme federal court of Abuja.
The matter has sparked reaction abroad. Hundreds of people protested with torches on Wednesday in front of the Nigerian Embassy in Rome. The Nigerian government, headed by Christian President Olusegun Obasanjo, promised to support Husaini's appeal.
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Katsina executes first Shari'a Court murder convict
This Day (04.01.2002)/ HRWF (09.01.2001) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - The first murder convict under the Shari'a law in Katsina State, Mallam Sani Rodi, 25, was executed yesterday by hanging at the Kaduna Convict Prison. Rodi was found guilty last month by a Katsina Court of killing with a machete, 35-year-old Hajiya Zainab Hamza, wife of his master, and her two children, Hadiza 3, and Abdullahi, who was three months old.
The Katsina State Education Commissioner, Alhaji Babajo Ibrahim, who led a three-man delegation consisting a representative each from Katsina and Daura emirate councils to witness the execution, told NAN that Rodi's execution was approved by Governor Umar Musa Yar'Adua. The execution was carried out at 10 a.m.
The commissioner said the execution was sequel to the expiration of the one-month grace to the convict to appeal against his conviction. "He was convicted, despite his denial, by the Kofar Soro Shari'a Court in Katsina, presided over by Kadi Mustapha Darma, assisted by Kadis Usamatu Mustapha and Usman Musa," he said.
During the trial, the deceased's husband and an eyewitness were asked to swear 25 times each by the Holy Qur'an that Rodi killed Zainab and her two children which, Ibrahim said, they swore to. The commissioner said "Rodi's corpse will be left in the mortuary of the Katsina Specialist Hospital for two days to enable people see it before burial".
Some interest groups were present at the execution, including the leader of the Izala sect in Katsina State, Sheikh Habibu Kaura, relations of Zainab's husband, her father and other relations.
Commenting on the execution, Kaura expressed reservations on the mode of executing Rodi, pointing out that since he used machete to kill the three people, Islam required that he also be killed in same manner. "Only armed robbers are recommended in Islam to be executed by either hanging or firing squad," he said, adding: "I want our Islamic judges to consult religious books and read extensively to enable them have a full grasp of ways of carrying out such exercise".
Also commenting on the execution, Zainab's father, Alhaji Mamman Asuko, said: "I saw him being hanged and and I am happy that he has been killed". A prison warder, who witnessed the execution said when Rodi was about to be hanged he requested those present to ask his parents to forgive him.
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